Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought. A theory however elegant and economical must be rejected or revised if it is untrue; likewise laws and institutions no matter how efficient and well-arranged must be reformed or abolished if they are unjust. Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override. For this reason justice... does not allow that the sacrifices imposed on a few are outweighed by the larger sum of advantages enjoyed by many... The only thing that permits us to acquiesce in an erroneous theory is the lack of a better one; analogously, an injustice is tolerable only when it is necessary to avoid an even greater injustice. Being first virtues of human activities, truth and justice are uncompromosing.
- John Rawls (1921-2002), A Theory of Justice, pp. 3-4.
Men, though naturally sympathetic, feel so little for another with whom they have no particular connection, in comparison to what they feel for themselves; the misery of one, who is merely their fellow-creature, is of so little importance to them in comparison even of a small convenience of their own; they have it so much in their power to hurt him, and may have so many temptations to do so, that if this principle [justice] did not stand up within them and overawe them into a respect for his innocence, they would, like wild beasts, be at all times ready to fly upon him; and a man would enter an assembly of men as he enters a den of lions.
- Adam Smith (1723-1790), The Theory of Moral Sentiments, p. 169.
apud A Conflict of Visions - Ideological Origins of Political Struggle, de Thomas Sowell
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